


A Nightmare Smile

by Cassandra14



Category: Charmed (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon-typical violence but only in the dream, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Nightmares, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21540940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cassandra14/pseuds/Cassandra14
Summary: In most people's nightmares, the monsters are chasing them. In Macy's nightmare, she is the monster.Waking up from that, it's good to have a friend you can call.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	A Nightmare Smile

It had been rather nice having the house to herself. 

Maggie was spending a couple of days at Kappa, having bonding time. Mel had been invited to a friend’s wedding at the lake outside of town and was staying for the weekend. They’d both left Friday.

On Saturday, Macy had been able to binge-watch DS9 on the living room TV with no disturbances or interruptions. She’d ordered in Thai and ate it without squabbling over the spring rolls. When she opened up A03, there was no one leaning over her shoulder and asking to know what she was reading. 

When she’d gone to bed, she had noticed the house feeling a bit too quiet. But putting on an audiobook to fall asleep to had solved that. 

_“Macy, please!”_ _Maggie begged, blood dripping from her mouth, eyes, and ears. “I’m your sister, please, stop!”_

_Macy advanced on Maggie, fist clenching. Maggie gasped like a fish and then crumpled to the attic floor. She didn’t get up._

_“Macy, stop, what are yo-”_

_She whirled. Her hand flew - and so did Harry. Glass and wood shattered. Macy strode to where the window had been and looked down._

_Necks weren’t meant to twist that way._

_Mel ran to Maggie, checking for a pulse. “Maggie! Wake up!”_

_Macy watched, dispassionately, as Mel choked back a sob when there was no response._

_Mel raised her head. “You did this. I knew, I knew there was something wrong with you. Mom saw it. That’s why she sent you away, because she knew what you were, a monster.”_

_A jagged two-by-four slammed into Mel’s stomach._

_“You should have stayed dead,” Mel rasped before her body went slack._

_Macy glanced to the side, into a mirror. Her eyes were black holes and she was smiling._

Macy recoiled, flinging herself away, and was tangled in her sheets. Shaking, she scrambled for bedside lamp. Her fingers found the chain and she yanked. 

Warm light shoved aside the darkness. 

Macy sat up against the headboard. Her heart pounded. She tried to breathe in and out, muttering, “It wasn’t real. It was just a dream. It wasn’t real.” 

The images refused to leave her - Maggie’s pleading, the blood-spatter of Harry’s head striking concrete, Mel’s shirt growing darker and darker, and that smile, the smile in the mirror, a smile of satisfaction, of revelry in what it had done. 

“It was a dream,” she repeated, “Just a dream.” 

Tears stung her eyes. 

Maybe if she could just - she grabbed for her phone. 

In the second it needed to unlock, Macy shook her head. She whispered, “No. You can’t -”

They were off having a good time, and probably asleep, and if she called them, in the middle of the night, just because of a bad dream, they would feel they would have to come home, and she couldn’t - she wouldn’t - do that to them. Not just because of a stupid dream. 

Harry, she could call Harry. 

Macy stopped herself again. They were trying not to call him for every little thing. He never complained but it wasn’t right to bother him at all hours of the day and night, not when it wasn’t an emergency. 

And this wasn’t an emergency. Not really. 

Not even though she couldn’t stop trembling, couldn’t stop her heart racing, couldn’t stop the tears from escaping. She wiped them away with her sleepshirt's sleeve. 

She fumbled with the phone, attempting to put it back on the bedside table. 

Her fingers slipped, and she hit the third most recently dialed number. 

The ring startled her so badly that she dropped the phone. Frantically, she lunged for it. It rang a second time before she got hold of it and mashed END. 

She’d laid it down when it rang again, white letters spelling Harry Greenwood. 

Macy emitted a strangled laugh that held no mirth. 

When it clicked over to voicemail, the call cut off. A moment later, the phone rang once more. 

Swallowing, Macy picked it up. Doing her best to sound normal, she said, “Harry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call you. You must have been asleep. I’m sorry.”

“Macy, are you okay?”

She bit her lip. “I’m fine, everything’s fine, it was an accident.”

She knew her pitch was too high and pace too rapid, and pressed a hand over her mouth to keep from spilling the truth. 

From the other side, she heard the rustle of fabric, what sounded like someone getting out of bed. 

“Macy, you have five seconds to convince me not to orb over there, right now,” Harry informed her. “Five, four, three…”

She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to tell him “no, don’t come” but unable to admit she very much wanted him to. 

“Two, one.” 

Macy opened her eyes as the call disconnected. Harry lowered his phone, easing it onto the table before he perched on the bed. 

Gently, he drew her phone from her clutches. Setting it aside, he replaced it with his own hands, letting her cling onto him instead. 

“Sorry,” she whispered. “You shouldn’t have - it was just a stupid dream.”

“It’s not stupid, not if it’s upsetting you like this,” Harry countered, his voice low and a little gravelly from sleep. “And I’m glad you called.” 

His thumbs brushed against the backs of her fingers. 

“It feels stupid. I’m almost thirty, I’m a goddamn witch, and I’m -” Macy grimaced. “I shouldn’t let something like this -”

“Is to be expected,” Harry finished. Macy stared at him. 

He continued, “With all the horrific things we face, I wish I could say nightmares were unusual.”

“Maybe, but this wasn’t…”

Macy let go of his hands, Harry releasing her as soon as he felt the movement. She shrank into herself with her arms folded tightly.

Looking down, she gnawed at her bottom lip. Snatches of the dream flashed, making her twitch her head in silent rejection. Harry stayed still and quiet. 

The words dropped like lead weights from her tongue. “I was smiling.”

“You were smiling?” Harry repeated in a bare murmur. 

“I killed you. Well -” Macy gritted her teeth and dug her nails into her palms. “I killed Maggie first. Then you. Then Mel. And - and I saw myself - in the mirror - and I was smiling.”

“It wasn’t real. I know you wouldn’t -”

“Really?” Macy demanded, gesticulating wildly. “How do you know? How can you be so sure? Because I’m not, Harry. When I was the Source, it was - it felt right. It felt good. I _knew_ that I was in control, that I could make everything right, that this was what I was meant to be and -”

“And nothing.” With all the sharpness of a whip’s crack, Harry cut in. “You stopped yourself.”

“If you and my sisters hadn’t -”

“We might have helped, but you were the one to step away from that precipice. You made that choice. Not us,” Harry said bluntly. 

“What about next time? I still have this, this darkness inside of me,” Macy pressed. She dug her knuckles into her breastbone. “What about Fiona and Charity? They weren’t always evil, were they? And they didn’t have demon blood in them. They weren’t brought back from the dead. But look what they did! Look at the monsters they became! So don’t tell me it’s not possible!”

She flung the challenge at him. Her shoulders heaved and she could hear the huff and puff of her breath.

Harry didn’t flinch. 

When the echoes of her shout had faded, he spoke into the silence, “You’re right. It is possible that you could go down the wrong path, become the very worst possible version of yourself.”

He exhaled a long sigh. “But Macy, that’s _always_ true. Of everyone. Charity and Fiona...the Fiona I knew, the one who was betrayed and institutionalized and sent to a literal hell - please trust me when I say that the Sarcana may have freed her but they didn’t save her. It was too late for that. I was only in Tartarus for a few days but I could already feel how it gets inside of you and rips you apart from within. I try not to imagine what it did to her.”

“As for Charity…” His jaw clenched and he glanced away, but only for a moment. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what choices she made in the years - decades - between when we were together and when she - I don’t know how she ended up where she did.”

“So why…” Macy gestured at herself. “Why do you think that I’ll be different? Even with the demon blood and the fact that I’m not even supposed to be alive…”

“Because I have faith.”

“In me?” 

“In you. Your sisters, too.”

“What, like the bond of sisterhood will save us?” 

Harry shook his head. “No, not as such. I’ve come to know you, and Mel and Maggie. I’ve watched you, seen the choices you make, the values you hold dear. Because of that, I choose to have faith that you’ll stay on the right path. You’ll make mistakes of course, make the wrong choice sometimes, that’s part of being human but if you’re asking if I think you will go dark or evil or however you want to phrase it, no, I don’t.” 

His speech drifted across the space between them. It settled on her skin, gossamer as a butterfly’s wing. 

“That easy?” whispered Macy. 

“That simple,” he corrected. After a beat, he opened his arms and said, “Come here.” 

Without hesitation, Macy accepted the invitation. She curled into him and tucked her head under his chin. Her field of vision narrowed to the green and white striped cotton of his pajamas. Harry started to rub slow circles on her back. 

“One more thing,” he said, Macy able to feel the rumble in his chest. “Marisol may not have understood all the implications of what she did when she had you brought back, but she did get one thing absolutely right.”

“Which was?”

“The world is better for having you in it.”

Macy had no response for that except to close her eyes and listen to her heartbeat as it finally began to calm. 

After a few minutes, she raised her head. 

A flicker of something colorful drew her attention. Shifting out of Harry’s arms, she leaned to peer over the edge of the bed. 

“You’re wearing cat slippers. [Pink, fluffy cat slippers](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MG79DKI/ref=twister_B07GPL7G8J?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1),” she stated. It was bizarre enough to distract her. 

“They were a gift,” Harry said, smiling and not the least bit defensively. He straightened his legs, holding them up so she could get a good look. “And are quite cozy.”

Macy giggled, a little manic from relief, and allowed her shoulder to fall against his. “Don’t let Mel or Maggie see them. You’d never hear the end of it.”

“I have mouse ones too.”

“Mickey mouse?”

“Regular mouse. Mice?” He cocked his head. “I’m not sure of the proper plural.”

Macy asked, “Are they pink too?”

“Gray. [But they do have tails](https://www.etsy.com/listing/71669582/felted-adult-size-slippers-mice).”

That set her off again. The laughter washed away the lingering remnants of her nightmare from her mind. 

When she finished chuckling, she swiped at her cheeks. “God, I must be a mess.”

“Nothing a flannel can’t fix,” Harry assured her. “Why don’t you go do that while I see if there’s any of the chamomile blend left? Then see if you can go back to sleep?”

After she’d nodded, Harry slid to his feet. With a brief squeeze of her shoulder, he left the room. Macy tracked his footsteps, down the hallway and down the stairs, the landing lights flickering on to help him see. 

She shoved aside the covers. She grabbed a fresh t-shirt and sleep pants from the dresser as she passed it by; her current ones felt clammy and tainted. 

When she turned on the bathroom lights, Macy squinted at her reflection. It was as disheveled as she had feared. 

She used hot water to wet a washcloth. Wringing it out, she wiped away the tear stains. She wet it again, this time just pressing it to her face so the heat could soak in. She held it there until it faded to cold. 

The washcloth tossed into the hamper, Macy striped off her pajamas and pulled on the new ones. Her muscles relaxed, and the adrenaline she’d been running on was fading. Tiredness tugged on her body. 

She shuffled back to bed, hitting the bathroom light switch by habit more than intention. Macy swapped the pillows she’d been using with the ones from the other side of the bed. 

Thinking a moment, Macy headed for triangular bookcase she’d installed in the corner. It only held about twenty books and a few knick-knacks but she kept her comfort books there. They were the ones she’d read over and over, hauled to and from boarding school and then college, all familiar friends. 

She vacillated between _Sorcerer’s Stone_ and _the Goblet of Fire_ , ultimately choosing the first as she wanted the lighter fare. 

Propped up against the headboard, she’d gotten to the boa constrictor’s escape when Harry returned, tapping the half-open door to announce his presence. 

“I added honey instead of sugar,” he said, handing her an oversized teacup. Macy cradled it with both hands. “Feeling better?”

“Yes, my head’s clearing. I don’t know why this upset me so much.”

“Because you’re a fundamentally good person and as such, the idea of hurting other people, people you care about no less, upsets you,” Harry replied. He leaned against the doorframe. “Seems perfectly understandable.”

“I guess.” Macy sipped the tea. “Still, I’m sorry I dragged you over here in the middle of the night.”

“It’s alright. Although I get the sense you didn’t intend to?”

“No, I didn’t. I didn’t mean to call anyone.”

“Why not?” asked Harry gently. “If not me, surely one of your sisters, Maggie’s only a few minutes away…”

“I couldn’t ask them to drop everything just because I had a bad dream. You too for that matter.” Fidgeting, Macy rotated the cup. “I can handle a nightmare on my own.”

“I’m sure, but that doesn’t mean you have to,” Harry told her. 

“Still getting used to that I think,” Macy said, a little wryly. She gave him a small smile. 

“Well, do try to get back to sleep, okay?” 

She gestured at the book on her lap. “I will. One or two more chapters should do it.” 

“Good. Goodnight - or good morning, perhaps,” said Harry. 

“Goodnight, and thank you.” She caught and held his gaze. “For everything.” 

“Not necessary, but you’re welcome. Pleasant dreams.”

He flashed her a smile, then orbed away. 

Nestling down into her pillows, Macy kept the tea in one hand and turned the pages with the other. The two promised chapters later, she’d finished the tea. Book and cup on the bedside table, she was able to turn off the lamp and let sleep come.

**Author's Note:**

> Haven't seen season 2 so purely based on season 1, about 3-4 months after the season ends.


End file.
